20 posts from January 2011

January 14, 2011

In his quest to learn why some people never get sick, Gene Stone has come up with 25 common-sense health “secrets” that he says all have a scientific underpinning.

Interestingly, he did not select getting a flu shot, closing the lid to the toilet before flushing (though evidence supports this health practice), taking various vitamin and nutritional supplements, eating a strict raw-food diet, eating certain foods (including oranges, apples and pomegranates), placing a humidifier in each room or changing the shower curtain on a regular basis. (But you may want to wash your shower head.)

So what did he choose? Garlic, herbal remedies, a plant-based diet, hydrogen peroxide, lifting weights, napping, eating dirt and cold showers, just to name a few.

I’ve tried nearly all of his 25 suggestions. The ones I haven’t been able to do on a regular basis — live in a blue zone and take cold showers — are just too daunting for me right now. So far, only five blue zones -- a geographic area with the highest concentration of the world’s longest-lived people — have been confirmed. The only one in the U.S. is in Loma Linda in Southern California, home to 9,000 Seventh Day Adventists.

Cold showers have been around a lot longer than hot ones, Stone points out. But while invigorating, I find them intolerable. Plus they leave me chilled for hours afterward.

Still, there’s a method I may try that’s easier than jumping in all at once, a practice that can hinder circulation. The following strategy is from Nate Halsey, who has taken a cold shower daily for about a decade and shared his secret with Stone.

“Turn the water on for thirty seconds or so, dip your head in long enough to get it wet, and turn off the water.

“Now that your hair is wet, wash it with shampoo.

“Turn on the water again. Return to the shower for less than thirty seconds, rinsing off your hair and wetting the skin. Turn the water off again, step out, lather with soap, turn the water on again and jump in, rinsing off the soap.”

You get the idea. Repeat with conditioner.

The entire event should take five minutes.

Stone cautions that extremely thin people may not be able to tolerate cold showers. Likewise, if you have a medical condition such as Reynaud’s disease or blood pressure issues, talk to your doctor before trying it.

January 13, 2011

Public speaking, a common source of workplace stress and anxiety, often means more than standing before an audience giving prepared remarks.

It may also require addressing colleagues around a conference table, speaking up during a performance review or asking a question from your seat in an auditorium, say the authors of the book "Work Makes Me Nervous," a self-empowerment training program.

"When all eyes are on you, that’s when the anxiety response can kick in," said Amy Lemley, who co-authored the book with anxiety expert Jonathan Berent.

To combat the embarrassing blushing, shaking or sweating that may occur, invoke the "quieting response," a five-minute technique that occurs automatically with practice, said Berent. Try it minutes before any event where you know you'll be noticeably nervous, as long as you have four or five minutes to yourself:

1. Do one to two solid minutes of diaphragmatic breathing — pacing each inhale. Exhale to 8 to 12 seconds. Focus on deep, steady breaths, rhythmic, natural and unforced.

2. Make a fist with your right hand and hold it for about 15 seconds. Then let go and focus on the looseness for 15 seconds.

3. Make a fist with your left hand and hold it for approximately 15 seconds. Then let go and focus on the looseness for 15 seconds.

4. Say to yourself three times, “My right hand is warm.” Saying that statement should take between 12 and 15 seconds.

5. Say to yourself three times, “My left hand is warm.” Saying that statement should take between 12 and 15 seconds.

6. Say to yourself three times, “I feel the blood flowing into my right hand.” Saying that statement should take between 12 and 15 seconds.

7. Say to yourself three times, “I feel the blood flowing into my left hand.” Saying that statement should take between 14 and 18 seconds.

8. Focus only on the rhythm of your diaphragmatic breathing for 30 seconds.

9. Close your eyes and, for 30 seconds, visualize in your mind’s eye: You are speaking in front of the group, accepting the adrenaline, using its energy for productive, effective speaking. You are organized, passionate, engaging and natural. You understand your audience and you have practiced.

10. Open your eyes. Take a deep breath. You are ready to go!

A few tips:

In the exercise, precision is important. "The timing of each step matters. Each complete inhalation-exhalation should take between 8 and 12 seconds," said Berent.

Practice when the pressure is off. "Consider using it as a daily exercise; soon, you’ll have a reliable tool that will boost your performance — and reduce your stress — in many areas of your life,” said Berent.

Cold hands indicate stress. But Berent says if you practice the developmental exercises in "Work Makes Me Nervous" you'll discover something remarkable: Your hands will respond to the word "warm" even if they are cold. "They are then able to harness the energy of adrenaline rather than trying to ignore it or avoid it," he said. "You often hear athletes and performers talk about being “in the zone.' That’s what we’re talking about."

Ready to try it? The workout isn't as easy as it might look. If you falter in the middle, try modifying the exercises, rather than stopping, said Zaslow, a professor of mathematics at Northwestern and a three-time national and two-time world champ in Ultimate. For example, drop to your knees while doing push ups, or do crunches instead of sit ups, he said.

January 10, 2011

One of the most common misconceptions about bodyweight exercises — push ups, pull ups and sit ups – is that you can’t adjust the difficulty of the exercise. Once you’ve mastered the basics, then what?

In fact, “the only limiting factor is your creativity,” said military fitness expert Mark Lauren, author of the new book “You Are Your Own Gym,” which includes 125 different bodyweight exercises.

“Every weightlifting motion can be mimicked, made harder or easier, with your own bodyweight.”

Lauren suggests using four techniques to change the difficulty:

• Increase or decrease the amount of leverage• Perform an exercise on an unstable platform• Use pauses at the beginning, end and/or middle of a movement• Turn an exercise into a single-limb movement (use one hand instead of two)

The push up, for example, works the chest, shoulders, triceps, abs, obliques and lower back. (Benching works just half of these muscle groups, said Lauren.)

The easiest push up involves standing up and pressing your arms against a wall. To make it more difficult, place your hands on a lower surface — for example, the edge of a desk or a windowsill. A classic push up – when both your hands and feet are on the floor – is harder still. And when you “put your feet on a coffee table and your hands on the ground, the exercise becomes significantly more difficult,” Lauren wrote.

A second way to increase the challenge is to add an unstable surface by placing one hand or both on a ball, such as a basketball.

Still harder would be to throw in a pause at the bottom of a basketball push up.

“Still not hard enough? Try doing them one-handed on the floor,” wrote Lauren. Then one-handed with your feet on the couch. Then on an unstable surface. Then with pauses. … You get the idea.”

Lauren maintains that bodyweight exercises burn more fat than aerobics and build more muscle than weightlifting. Moreover, bodyweight exercises are functional; they stabilize the body and prevent injury.

But the biggest plus, he said, is that they can be done absolutely anywhere. “On the road, in the living room, while the kids are taking a nap — you can always get a good workout that doesn’t cost any money,” said Lauren, a military contractor who recently returned from Afghanistan.

January 07, 2011

Claim: Tart cherry juice can be a natural solution for insomnia, according to CherryPharm, which produces a tart cherry juice product called CheriBundi.

Reality: The idea that cherry juice can help promote sleep is one worth pursuing, say experts. But so far, there's only limited evidence showing it works.

In a recent pilot study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, researchers gave 15 older adults either 8 ounces of a tart cherry juice (CheriBundi) or a placebo drink in the morning and evening for two weeks. The researchers repeated the trial for another two week period, giving the volunteers the drink they hadn’t received in the first round. The study was funded by CherryPharm.

They found a modest reduction in the time spent awake for the cherry juice drinkers, an effect that should be used to support further, more definitive work, said Wilfred Pigeon, the Director of the Sleep and Neurophysiology Research Lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center and the study's lead author.

"It's premature to suggest this is a new treatment for insomnia, said Pigeon, who nonetheless finds the possibility "intriguing."

The body naturally produces melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate the body's sleep cycles. Tart cherries have a relatively high content of melatonin and the body is able to absorb the melatonin in the juice, said melatonin expert Russel Reiter, a professor in the department of cellular and structural biology at The University of Texas Health Science Center.

But Reiter said it’s unknown whether the juice contains enough melatonin to help people get more sleep. It’s also unclear whether melatonin is the mechanism by which tart cherries may improve sleep, said Pigeon. Tart cherries also contain a number of anti-inflammatory compounds which may also be associated with sleeping and waking mechanisms.

"Compared with prescription sleep medications and to cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, the effects are not very impressive. Compared with melatonin, valerian root and other "alternative" or "natural" approaches it is as good or better," said Pigeon, adding that the study didn't compare the treatments directly.

Still, cherry juice has plenty of other nutrients, including antioxidant compounds called anthocyanins. And if a patient had failed with CBT and didn't want to take a medication for insomnia, then Pigeon would say, "go for it."

"It probably can't hurt and just might help," said Pigeon, the author of “Sleep Manual.”

Horton also recommends workouts that use your own body weight, confuse the muscles and require a little effort. Work out five days a week and do more than just walk, he says. Three days a week on the elliptical or “just plodding along is not really going to change your body, unless you kick it up a bit by adding speed and walking on an incline,” he said.

The annual 26.2-mile run is scheduled for Oct. 9, the day after The Jewish Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur "requires worshippers to fast, abstaining from food and drink for a 25-hour period, and observant runners will only be able to break the fast the night before the marathon," Lee wrote.

Experts gave conflicting views on whether it's safe to run a marathon after prolonged fasting. According to Lee's piece, Dr. Sara Brown, a sports physician in Lincoln Park, said fasting runners should sit out the marathon, adding that long runs after fasting can be dangerous.

"That's what I would recommend to anybody that would be observing the holiday," Brown said. "I wouldn't recommend running 26 miles the next day."

However, Chicago marathon Race Director Dr. George Chiampas said some runners who fast can run the next day and that a 24-hour fast would not harm the body enough to be dangerous if a runner has the proper nutrients.

"If they've done it in the past, and they feel they can get back to baseline, that should suffice," Chiampas said. "It's not a generalization for every runner."

Food coloring is the reason glace cherries are red rather than beige and that children's tongues sometimes appear freakishly blue.

But man-made dyes may do more than make processed food look vibrant and whimsical. Some blame the additives for triggering behavioral problems in youngsters.

Acting on research published in the Lancet, the European Parliament last year began requiring products containing synthetic food colors to carry warning labels saying that "consumption may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."

Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a March hearing on whether food dyes adversely impact children's health. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, is asking the agency for a synthetic food-dye ban and to place warnings on products until the colors are removed.

The dyes are often used to enhance the appearance of sugary cereals, candies, sodas, fruit-flavored snacks, fast food and other products that are aimed at children and have little nutritional value, the CSPI said in a citizen's petition signed by 18 physicians and researchers. Since naturally derived alternatives exist, the continued use is hardly worth any potential risk, it said.

In June, just a week before the Chicago Public Schools social worker was honored for his humanitarian act , Coyne received a termination notice for violating the district's longtime but controversial requirement that employees live in the city. The day before receiving the letter, Coyne's mother died of pancreatic cancer.

But in October the married father of two was granted a lifelong residency waiver. And despite riding an emotional rollercoaster for much of year — bouncing among feelings of joy, stress, uncertainty and survivor's guilt — Coyne is grateful for an abundance of life-changing events.

Though Coyne's gesture came with no strings attached, he and de la Vega forged a unique friendship; their families shared many meals together, including Thanksgiving. Coyne helped fix de la Vega's roof, trimmed her trees and drove her daughter to Knox College for her freshman year of school.

Next month Coyne plans to meet with Secretary of State Jesse White to discuss the launch of a living kidney donor registry in Illinois, similar to the one that uses driver's licenses to designate organ donors after death. He and de la Vega, a native Filipina, also plan to visit her home country next year to educate others about the living donor program.

De la Vega, 49, returned to her job as a cashier at Jewel-Osco two months after the transplant and has been coping well. Last year at this time, while on dialysis, she wasn't sure if she'd reach her 50th birthday. But "the kidney was my early Christmas gift," said de la Vega.

Appropriately enough, Coyne last week dressed as Santa Claus for his students at Pershing East Magnet School. He reminded them that the most important gift can't be bought or even made.

"The most precious gift is what your teacher gives you every day," Coyne told the children between "ho-ho-ho's." "That gift is knowledge."

"Listen to your parents," Coyne added as he left the school gym. "Listen to your grandparents, and be safe. Life is precious."

Alcohol is hard to cut back on or quit, especially if your friends see it as a prerequisite to hanging out. But there are strategies that can help you get the ball rolling.

When Betsy Franz (left) chose to stop drinking, friends offered condolences. Some people bought her alcoholic drinks anyway and bugged her so much about her decision that she considered telling people she was a recovering alcoholic so they would leave her alone.

It's not easy to give up booze — or to cut back — without turning into a pariah. Alcohol, the ultimate social lubricant, is used to help loosen tongues, lighten moods and reduce anxiety. "If you don't participate, people seem compelled to want to make you drink," said Franz, 55. "It's almost like people think it is unheard of to not drink, unless you have some excuse for it."

Some people, like Franz, hop on the wagon because they feel better without alcohol. Others may want to drop a few pounds or save money. Or, more seriously, they may want to avoid the accidents, family dramas and medical problems caused by chronic overindulgence.

Experts say quitting or cutting back can be difficult because it can be a little like losing your best friend, both figuratively and literally. For the truly addicted, alcohol is a source of comfort, "especially when people drink alone to try to cope with other issues," said Dr. David Rosenbloom, professor of public health at Boston University and the director of Join Together, an online news service that supports alcohol prevention, policy and treatment programs.

Others may feel it's hard to socialize without clutching a beer. If friends are not supportive of your staying sober, "then a person may well need a whole new social network, especially if being with the group is a trigger to drinking," said Rosenbloom.

Strategies

It's possible to stay sober without sacrificing your friends or social life. Try these strategies:

Keep your hands busy. Holding a drink or pausing to take a sip gives you something to do at a party. Just make it a non-alcoholic drink, soda, coffee or water. Or alternate among them.

Remind yourself that alcohol is overrated. There's no good evidence showing that alcohol can actually reduce social stress; you just think it does. "The anticipated benefits are more likely psychological than biological," said Joe Himle, an associate professor in social work and psychiatry at the University of Michigan. His research has shown that at moderate doses, alcohol didn't directly reduce social anxiety.

Practice saying "No." We all tend to "overestimate willpower and underestimate the strength of habits," said psychiatrist Suzanne Thomas, who studies the relationship between stress and alcohol craving at the Medical University of South Carolina's Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs.

"We think we have this resolve, but when you get back in the swing of things the habit kicks in," said Thomas, an associate professor of psychiatry. Willpower requires vigilance, something most of us aren't accustomed to exercising, she said.

Keep a drinking diary. Simply writing down how many drinks you've had can help you cut back. Also, write down your reasons for cutting down or stopping and set a drinking goal. Put this goal where you can see it, such as on your refrigerator or bathroom mirror, suggests the Join Together Web site.

Get up early. Make a serious bet with a friend that you both have to be at the gym at 6 a.m. for the next two weeks, said Max Goldberg, founder of livingmaxwell.com, who quit drinking in 1999. "If friends pressure you to drink or stay out, you can just say, 'There is no way I am losing this bet. Not a chance,'" he said. "You'll be able to redirect the blame on something else."

Fake it. To avoid overdrinking at business dinners, publicist Philip Chang makes sure people see and hear him order a gin on the rocks. Then he discreetly asks the server to put water in his glass for the rest of the evening. Also try putting twice as much mixer into a single drink and water it down a little, so, for example, you can have 8 ounces of Diet Coke and 1.5 ounces of bourbon. Or order a drink that looks like alcohol but isn't, such as a sparkling water with some grapefruit juice in it, said Goldberg. Don't forget the lime and small straw.

Does a short break help?

Can taking a short-term break from drinking make a meaningful impact on your health? Not if your hiatus is "just an occasional sunny patch in an otherwise cloudy sky," said Ken Winters, director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at the University of Minnesota Medical School. If you take a three-week break after five years of heavy binge-drinking and then resume heavy drinking for another five years, you won't likely see any positive changes.

On the other hand, someone who cuts back to moderate drinking (no more than two drinks per occasion) for several months could see some beneficial effects, said Winters, a professor of psychiatry.

Heavy use causes persistent changes in the brain, and it takes a while for the brain to normalize, said psychiatrist Suzanne Thomas, who studies the relationship between stress and alcohol craving at the Medical University of South Carolina's Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs. "The parts of the brain most affected by addiction are the same parts that allow you to exercise willpower," she said. "Those parts of your brain have been specifically damaged by years of heavy use by alcohol and other drugs. But the longer you stay sober, the easier it becomes."